Bibingka

Bibingka is a type of rice cake native to the Philippines. This is traditionally made from galapong (milled glutinous rice), coconut milk, margarine, and sugar. During dawn masses on Christmas season, side street vendors are a common sight preparing and selling this delicious rice cake along with “puto bumbong”.

The traditional way of cooking Bibingka is unique and quite time consuming. The mixture is poured on a clay pot lined with pre-cut banana leaf. A special clay oven known as “Bibingka oven” is needed to bake this rice cake. The clay pot is placed between the layers of the Bibingka oven and lit charcoals (locally known as “uling”) are placed below and above the clay pot to evenly cook the mixture.

The recipe that we have here is an alternative to the traditional. Since most of us do not have clay pots around and it is impossible to find Bibingka ovens in you local Home Depot, we’ll be using ordinary cake pans and our kitchen oven instead. As for the galapong, I’ll try to feature another recipe variation in the future using that. For now, we’ll settle for an alternative ingredient that needs no preparation at all – rice flour.

We will need ordinary rice flour for this recipe, not the glutinous one. This should be available in any Asian or Pinoy store in your area. If in case you are having a hard time distinguishing between the two (since most of the labels are written in Chinese), always remember that the package with the red print is the ordinary rice flour while glutinous rice flour is printed green.

By the way, I like to take this opportunity to thank all of you, our loyal readers, who gave time to send feedback and comments.

Comments

Bryan, I can certainly whip one up for you soon. Let me see what I can do about it; I might need some time in my test kitchen to produce a good version, but I will assure you that will be worth the wait.

All your recipes are really good. I tried some. I want to try your COL SLAW RECIPE but i want to ask you if i can cut the cabbage in advance but i’m afraid it will become black. Can u give me some advice how it will retain the freshness . Thanks and more power to you.

Love all your recipes esp. the desserts. I’m starting a small cake business and I’m looking for Ube Macapuno Cake recipe…. please share if you have it :)……was never a bibingka fun because of the texture but this bibingka recipe is delicious!!!!

Thanks sa mga recipe ! Although I was born and raised here in the US, I did spend 5 years when iI was around 5 and was taught the language by a tutor that my dad had hired specifically for me to learn. My father himself was a well-known executive chef at the Hilton Hotel in Palm Springs California during his times. I learned my talent of cooking by observation and have been requested numerously to cater to both Filipino parties and American ones as I do have excellent cooking skills..not really bragging hehe! A lot of people are surprised when they find out that I can fluently speak the language and can cook most Filipino foods better than full-blooded Filipinos that were raised in PI. My mother is of Irish-French decent so I most commonly mistaken for either being Hispanic or Native American (Indian) but I am light-skinned. But anyway, before I end up telling a short novel, I just wanted to let you know that I am truly excited to have found your website as I have been searching for some time now for an online site that had LOTS of down to earth Filipino recipes. Other websites that I have came across showed mostly only traditional ,basic recipes and not like your website that has a lot to look over! Im excited to browse thru some more and then get started in the kitchen Thank you so much!

Thank you for having this website. Indeed it is very informative. As a matter of fact I am using your site as one of my referrals.

Although after going thru your article of the Bibingka and doing a research on bread and cakes, it would be proper to call the bibingka a rice bread rather than rice cake. The reason is that a cake is normaly turned upside down and bread is not. As in the case of the Bibingka.

Good day Kuya! It was really nice watching your show.I’ve tried it and it was really looks closest thing to our street bibingka we had in the philippines. At least dito sa jeddah saudi kapag pasko at new year na di kami makauwi ng pinas,we still can eat puto bungbong and bibingka, then hot tea parang nasa pinas na rin kami habang ka webcam aming pamilya.THANK YOU AND MORE POWER!!!

Hello as of this writing I just put the grated cheese and salted eggs. Ang napansin ko lang natuyo yung dahon ng saging. I must suggest to brush it with canola oil or butter para hindi matuyo yung dahon.

Can’t wait for the result though … I tweaked/adjuct it a little bit.

Thank you so much for this easy to follow instructional video recipes.

uhmm im gonna make bibingka..but i dont like itlog na maalat can i replace it with just nilagang itlog instead?im not in philippines right now that’s why i decide to make it for the 1st time. it looks easy to make…

I appreciate the feedback, Jen. I understand that we all have a preference in terms of the level of sweetness. What you did was the right thing to do in your case. Most people like their bibingka sweet and the 1 cup of sugar in the recipe is the standard amount for that result.

I really appreciate you for making this filipino recipes. I don’t know much about cooking but through your webssite I can cook filipino dishes now. My husband is american and he loves the filipino food especially anything that has gata/coconut milk.
I tried most of the recipes here with gata and its great my husband love it. Thanks.
I just want to ask where do you buy your lye water for making kutsinta? I want to try kutsinta but could hardly find lye water. Most of the asian stores we have here in kansas does not have it and does not know what is lye water. Is there any alternative for that? Thanks again . God bless you.